Since they can’t sell people on electric cars, the next best thing is to outlaw internal combustion-engined cars. In order to force people into electric cars.
The German Bundesrat (their version of our Congress) just passed a bipartisan agreement toward that end. The legislative details have yet to be worked out, but the idea is to impose a comprehensive ban on the use of cars powered by internal combustion on not just German roads but all European Union roads as well.
By 2030 – just 14 years from now.
This is supposed to curb “climate warming emissions,” in particular carbon dioxide, says Green Party representative Oliver Krischer. “If the Paris Agreement (on global warming) is to be taken seriously, no new combustion engines should be allowed on roads.”
The Paris Agreement Krischer refers to urges a “review (of) current practices of taxation and dues with regard to a stimulation of emissions-free mobility.”
Italics added.
Why speak in euphemisms?
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“Stimulation” = punitive taxes designed to make driving other than an electric car cost-prohibitive.
And of course (but never spoken) electric cars will be that, too.
Remember your Heinlein. There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL) and electricity isn’t free energy and batteries aren’t cheap. Plugging in seems free because (for now) there is no meter attached to the port and whatever it costs to feed juice to your EV is either folded in to your general household utility bill or (if it’s a public charger) it’s “free”… for now.
Until they start to charge you for a charge.
It’ll be “free” just long enough to get you gulled into believing in such an idiocy as “free” energy.
And batteries.
We keep hearing they’ll get cheaper. Maybe so. To some extent, they have. But right now, they still cost a fortune and until they cost a fraction of their current cost, electric cars will never be an economical alternative to a car powered by internal combustion.
Which is why it is necessary to massively subsidize electric cars via tax (and carbon) credits and so on. Absent these, not even the stupid rich would pony up. And for the average person, a $30,000-plus car (whether electric or IC-powered) makes as much economic sense as a snow shovel in Phoenix.
Buy an EV because you think it’s cool, because it’s quick or for any of several other reasons. But as an economic decision, it’s wasteful and frivolous.
